Your Providence Public Library

Providence Public Library is an essential agency of public education and crucial to the infrastructure of the Rhode Island community. We are one of the few major libraries in the United States that is a private not-for-profit institution governed by a Board of Directors, giving us the flexibility to respond to community need rapidly and effectively. More...

Reception: 2:00 pmLecture: 2:30pm

Providence 375 Celebration at Providence Public Library

September – October Exhibit on Display in Special Collections, 3rd floor

Saturday, September 17 Opening Reception and Lecture with Richard Greenwood

Size Matters: The Corliss Steam Engine and the Industrial Ingenuity of Providence Please join us for an opening reception and talk with historian Richard Greenwood to discover why Providence was once nicknamed “The Beehive of Industry.” Materials from the Library's collections, including historic photographs of the Corliss Steam Engine from the Rhode Island Collection, will be on display in our 3rd floor Special Collections exhibit area.

About the Speaker

Richard Greenwood, Ph.D, is the Deputy Director of the Rhode Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Commission. Trained as an archaeologist as well as an historian, he takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the American landscape and the cultural forces that have shaped it. Richard has focused on the intersections of social, economic, and technological forces in Rhode Island history, and his research interests include: mill villages and the industrial revolution; the Blackstone Canal and the transportation revolution; and the evolution of the Rhode Island dairy farm.